The cast is off but there's a boot brace in its place
Back in mid-2001, just weeks before the world changed forever, our Stephanie got married.
In the week or so leading up to the wedding, my mom and Henry were in town to lend moral support.
During that time, we rented the movie that stars Tom Hanks as a Fed Ex executive who gets stranded on an uninhabited island after a plane crash.
You know the one.
I remember a brief discussion with my mother about the movie's title.
Is it Castaway? I asked -- thinking of the term for a person who ends up on a desert island, alone.
Just like Tom Hanks in the movie.
No ... it's Cast Away, my mother informed me.
Not much difference, except that castaway is a noun.
Cast Away (to be cast aside, as onto a deserted island) is what's known as a phrasal verb -- an idiomatic phrase consisting of a verb and another element, usually an adverb or a preposition.
What is she on about now? you may be justified in thinking at this point.
Well, I was mulling that small but important point as I planned our next-to-last party.
(Our last -- as in, latest -- party took place yesterday. I'll tell you about it soon.)
This was the party before that: Dagny's Cast Off party.
Not castoff! That's a noun. But Cast Off -- a phrasal verb meaning, in this case, the cast -- at last! -- came off.
Dagny's special friend Alexis joined us for the celebration
Or was taken off. Not like takeoff (noun) as in a plane, but take off -- as in, take it off! I can't stand it anymore!
And she couldn't. Dagny was so ready for that cast to come off on August 29th, two months and one day after the day she snapped her tibia while swimming in a shallow river in the upstate.
It was a Monday, and she got to leave school early for the doctor appointment.
Later, she FaceTimed us to relate what it was like to have her leg freed from the clunky cast.
Naturally we hoped that she'd be one-hundred-percent normal, just bopping along as though nothing had ever happened.
But that's not how it is.
She was fitted with a special boot brace that she must wear for another month, except when she takes a shower or goes swimming.
And she has been in swimming, a couple of times now, and her leg is getting stronger every day.
But it's still awkward for her to walk. The leg is atrophied and stiff, and she limps, but she does so without too much complaint.
I decided that a small celebration was in order, so on Wednesday, August 31st, before our mid-week service at church, we all met at East Bay Deli for supper.
They have a pretty great salad bar.
I had invited Alexis, who is the daughter of our assistant pastor, to join us. Dagny is devoted to Alexis, who considers Dagny a special little friend.
We ate salad and chatted and had a nice time of reminiscing about Dagny's broken bone ordeal, which is almost over.
TG and I had bought Dagny a giant balloon that looked like red roses. I also got her a small puzzle book called Purrlock Holmes, featuring a feline sleuth.
That's sort of a joke because Dagny is allergic to cats.
I call them Dagnett ... here pictured after church last Sunday night
Alexis brought her a few treats and she got some other things as well.
Now we can put that whole episode behind us, and move into autumn with the cast off.
Who knows what the tide could bring?
And that is all for now.
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Happy Tuesday
